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Why is the strengthening of scientific research?
The current changes of the economics of knowledge
The world is now in the phase of economic transformation that can not be compared with the transformations in the past at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century when the world economy transformed from the agricultural economy, which depends on the elements of production: land and labor, to an industrial economy, which depends on the elements of production: labor and capital. In the phase of transition knowledge and information replaced the energy and capital as the main centered pivot of development, as for the twentieth century to witness a shift from an industrial economy to a knowledge-based economy.
A Knowledge-based Economy can be defined as: the economy, which is based directly on the production of knowledge and information, as well as circulation and use of them.
the States that belong to this type of economy are classified on the basis of their ability to create a torrential stream of innovation and use of knowledge in development, thus the pivot, on which development is based, transformed from the use of larger volume of capital to better use of knowledge, and the ratio of investment in capital assets and investment in Knowledge has become one of the most important indicators of the transformation of societies towards a knowledge-based economy.
This transformation did not come from the vacuum, but was achieved as a natural result of concentration of institutions in Western countries for several decades on research and development as an essential part of their organizational structure, and the allocation of substantial funding to support the scientific research, where the private sector has the largest share of them. This has given the opportunity to generous spending on scientific research to develop new mechanisms and means for development and innovation, on top of which, cooperation between universities and industrial foundations. This partnership has become so indispensable to the continuity of technical progress fueled by heated competition faced by the private sector in the light of globalization.
The following graphs show the ranking of the industrial countries according to spending on scientific research, and shows the percentage contribution of the private sector in the total expenditure on scientific research (in 1996).
Ranking of the Industrial Countries According to Spending on Scientific Research
Britain France Germany Japan USA
180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 00
It is clear that it is imperative to increase
spending on scientific research in Arab countries, as research and development have become the only way to achieve the aspirations of the nation that was created the best among people, and to be able to transform its economy into a knowledge-based economy, and to catch up with development, which is an amazingly fast, and to be able to establish a knowledge-based society in Muslim countries, and thus once again regain the glory of our nation and take its rightful place.
The following figure shows the necessary size of the annual increase in spending on the research and development, which reached 0.25% of gross domestic product in 1996, the lowest rate in the world, which we hope to rise to 1.6% by 2020.
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